Terraria Skeletron Head Pixel Art Grid Terraria Armor Pixel Art

Note - This guide is presented as is and volition non exist maintained/updated.

Preface

Having recently seen some people try out pixel fine art here on the forums, I wanted to give them some links to a few tutorials. Alas, much to my surprise, I've discovered that... In essence, in that location are none.

Oh, of course, there are lots and lots of helpful guides out in the net, but from what I've seen, they were either much too bones, only dealt with a very specific subject field (MCF, for reasons beyond me, ended up having only terrain tutorials), or were much too advanced for a complete newbie and pertained to general pixel fine art.
As for Terraria specific guides, I just found three on Terraria Online, and while they do offer some good insight, I don't experience they're exhaustive enough.

This guide will exist adequately long and picture heavy, so be warned.

Tabular array of Contents

• Tools of the Trade:
  • Graphics software comparison
• Getting Started:
  • A few things you should know beforehand
• Terraria Specific Bug
  • Size
  • Style (Dissimilarity, Outlines, Orientation)
  • Armor in Terraria
  • Tile Grid
• Guide Proper
  • Defining the Shape
  • Shading
  • Additional Advice
  • Blitheness Basics
  • Addendum: Guns
  • Addendum: Spheres
• Mutual Beginner Mistakes
• Links

Tools of the Merchandise

Offset, I strongly advise against using MS Paint. Why settle for a sub-par tool, when something better can do the job more hands?
In full general, any image editing software can probably pull it off, only yous should get either Paint.Net or Gimp, both of which are gratuitous. There are tons of other programs, but I've never tried them, and either of the aforementioned are enough, for completion's sake however, I'm including a link to a list at the end.
In general, I am going to refer specifically to GIMP in this guide, as it'south my software of choice.

Too - Apply a PC. Y'all will

not

become a good pixel artist if y'all insist on spriting solely on your iPad or whatever.

Here are some Pros and Cons of the most popular programs:

GIMP
-Costless
-Doesn't strain the computer
-Mostly designed for paradigm editing and painting, but can do Pixel Fine art just fine
-Very user unfriendly

Paint.Cyberspace
-Easy to employ
-Free
-Doesn't strain the computer
-Supports transparency and layers
-The developers aren't jerks
-Very simple - Lacks advanced image editing features (However it tin can be extended with plugins)

Photoshop
-Very powerful and can do other things
-Has the about tutorials, plugins and all
-Forcing it to practice Pixel Fine art tin can get frustrating
-Expensive
-The interface is rather complicated

MS Paint
-It comes with Microsoft Windows
-Requires no setting upward to get-go spriting
-Not very difficult to figure out
-No transparency
-No layers
-No (proper) resizing
-No advanced features of whatsoever kind

You tin use MS Paint to make a scene of some kind, simply if you actually want to become into pixel art, yous really need a proper program.

My personal recommendation is either the aforementioned Pigment.Cyberspace or GIMP.

The choice comes downwards to whether or not you want to practice other things with it too spriting.
So if you want a complimentary Photoshop alternative that can do pixel art, go with Gimp. If you lot just want to sprite with a simple programme and nothing else, use Paint.cyberspace.

There are many other pixel-fine art oriented programs, but I've never tried them myself. Links below.

Getting Started

Before I move to the more specific tips, nosotros need to set upward our workspace:

This is your GIMP window. For spriting, you lot are going to use the PENCIL tool (1), which works identically to its MS Pigment counterpart. Past default, the ERASER tool (2) is geared toward normal use, ie digital fine art or photomanipulation, which is why you lot need to tick the Hard EDGE option (4) so that it erases everything, and pick a smaller BRUSH (3), specifically "Circumvolve (01)".

I seem to recall that by default, every new picture in Gimp has a white background.

We don't want that

.
In order to rectify it, make sure yous pick "Transparency" in the FILL WITH (5) choice.
Gimp should remember this setting, then at that place's a skillful chance in that location will be no need to do information technology every time.
Regardless of program, never use an opaque background unless it'southward just a preview.

​

Before I move on, there is one very of import, Terraria-specific info that every spriterhoped-for must know:

The ingame sprites are actually double-sized, which means that every pixel is in fact 2x2 pixels!

A lot of people seem to suggest using a 2x2 brush to emulate that, only I think that's an awful waste of fourth dimension and endeavor. Instead, what yous

should

practise is offset with a smaller sprite, and then simply upscale information technology to 200%. More on that later.

Also, when You lot are ready to save your sprite, make sure you save information technology as a PNG file.

JPG files are lower quality, and do non support transparency, which is important.

Terraria Specific Issues

a) Size:

At present that we have our program open up, nosotros need to make a new paradigm. The primal here, is to remember that Terraria's sprites are actually very minor, so you're going to demand a lot of practice to emulate the manner properly.
Non counting unused items, the

largest

sprite is 30x20. Every bit you tin guess, that's not a lot of space.
Better still, almost item icons are even smaller, going to every bit small every bit 8x8 pixels (Ores, blocks).

That is why, reverse to pop belief, if you want to get in expect right, yous will have to learn to piece of work in low resolution.

One problem with Terraria is that, unlike Minecraft, a lot of sprites have unlike sizes. This tin be both a blessing and a curse because information technology gives you lot more freedom, just at the same time working without a specific size can exist frustrating when something turns out to be much too big.

Farther forth the route, you should extract some textures with an XNB exporter (Link below) and check the sizes for reference.

​

A list of common sizes:
Ore Icon: 8x8
Bars: 15x22
Early Tools and Weapons: 16x16
Pistols: 22x15
Accessories: 14x14

Generally, a higher-end diagonal weapon will be about 24x24, guns/drills will be around 30x15, and mobs... Mobs are even crazier (The role player sprite is around 20x27)

Merely once again - The sizes vary from item to particular. That being said, try to keep the size the aforementioned or close to the original sprites, as the game won't scale them to fit everything else (So if you make a massive, detailed sword, the game won't compress it downward to be the same size as other swords).

Once yous're done, but scale your sprite to 200% and call it a solar day.

Remember to set the Interpolation to "None"!

In Paint.net, "Interpolation: None" is called "Resampling: Nearest Neighbour"

b) Style:

Ane matter you may or may not have noticed, is that (With simply a few exceptions)

everything

in Terraria has a nighttime outline.
I cannot stress enough how of import they are to the style, please observe:

​

To the left we accept an Fe Sword, to the correct the same sword without a split up border.

While this is not necessarily a bad matter, and it works fine in Minecraft or Risk of Rain, in Terraria this is a large no-no.

At that place is an exception to this, in the class of burning/glowing objects:

Nonetheless, do note that they withal have a slightly darker outline. For the moment, focus on having darker outlines, until you proceeds some proficiency.
Another exception from this rule are 1x1 tile flowers and other such tiny flora, which lacks outlines only considering in that location's no place to add them

As a final note regarding outlines - Never, ever make them blackness. Ever use a much darker color, but never pure black. More on that later.

Some other important matter to keep in mind, is dissimilarity.
Pixel art in general requires potent contrast, merely in this game in item it's doubly important.

What you don't know, is that a sprite opened in Gimp (Or otherwise) will look/feel different than information technology would in a colorful game environs, or against a different (Ie non neutral) groundwork.
Why do I mention this? Because a sprite that might look fine in your editing software, might blend in too much ingame. I used to accept this trouble

a lot

in the past.
Here'southward an instance:

They look fine on their own, merely the moment I've loaded them into Minecraft, it turned out the shades blended with each other far too much to await skilful. Unfortunately, at that point it meant remaking the unabridged texture pack, so I've lost motivation and abased it.

The concluding affair to go on in mind, is that the weapons are oriented towards the

correct

side. This ways that the sprite gets swung to the correct, and not the left like in Minecraft. Of grade, Terraria rotates the sprite when the graphic symbol is going left. So don't brand the same mistake I did in this tutorial, and make sure your weapon is pointing to the right side

c) Armor:

Much similar in Minecraft, armors have separate files for their inventory icons, and their ingame appearance (Unlike tools and weapons, whose in-game appearance is taken straight from the sprite).
If you're planning on using your newly sprited armor in a mod, you will have to breathing every single frame of information technology - Jumping, standing idly and so forth. This is very common in games that apply second sprites, and usually there's no fashion around it - You accept to draw every frame, peculiarly with more than complex objects like fire or a multi-limbed mob.

The majority of artists hither, Yours truly included, don't breathing their character sprites, so they tin't actually be used ingame without an

excessive

boosted amount of piece of work.
Creating this kind of stop movement animation is a tedious, and often frustrating process, personally I dislike animative anything because I'm merely not good at information technology, so I avoid information technology similar fire.

d) Tiles:

​

Now, making background tiles and piece of furniture can exist a scrap tricky. You can't really only open up a file and get downwards to information technology, you demand to keep in heed the grid:

Every object in Terraria is divided into parts, and then that the game knows how big a thing is.
Each of these cells is 8x8 pixels, and equals

one block

in the game.
And then you first have to chop up your piece of piece of furniture into parts, like so:

And then the game will put it back together when you load a world. You tin can either kickoff by making something on the grid, or (Like me), begin with the object in question, and so cutting it into pieces.
For the record - The player character takes up a 2x3 block space.

Guide Proper

Non to go to the meat of the issue - The spriting itself. I'll by and large focus on items hither, but the same techniques will be practical to mobs, tiles or otherwise.

1) Shape Definition:

Start and foremost,

You need to ascertain your shape. You tin can start with whatever colour you have selected and only outset drawing the overall silhouette: (You lot can, and will, adjust information technology as yous become)

Et Voila! A generic battleaxe of some kind. Proceed in mind that the object will need to accept an outline, which is best added after Y'all've got some basic shading laid out. If the detail takes up your entire image, yous can e'er increase the canvas size by 1 pixel and draw the outline.

Alternatively, you can simply outset with the outline, and then fill it with color, like in AaronC's guide (Link below). It's really upwardly to you lot.
As with shading, the shape can brand or suspension your sprite.
(Exercise non that I kinda forgot that weapons in Terraria face up right when I was making that axe)

ii) (Basic) Shading:

The second club of business, is to establish where the calorie-free source is and and then use that. The bulk of artists only default to placing the light source in the upper left corner, and that's fine (I do that too).

There are ii means yous can approach shading. If y'all're a complete beginner with shading, you could commencement by making it grayscale to get the light right, and then replacing it with color once you're comfortable with how it looks like. This has the advantage of not having to worry about how colors interact with each other and having a bad hue ruin the effect from the basis up.
When you're more than advanced, you lot're but going to skip this and go straight for colors and adjust them as necessary.
Of grade, the choice of method is yours. I simply found it easier to focus on just the shading when I was a beginner.

​

*Ahem*

At information technology's

nearly bones

, shading requires 3 colors - Shadows, Highlights and the Primary Color.
Of form, ane should strive to apply more than that, but at the same time - Don't overdo information technology.
In general, you want to go on the color count low relatively depression. This will aid if you want to utilise the same palette for several different items, or something that'due south animated, similar armors.

Equally a counter example, animative this would be a pain in the :

But the colour count is fine for a static piece (I hope).

3) Tweaking:

Notice that I used the iron color for the entirety of the axe, haft and all. Unless it'south an early weapon/tool that is colored past the game to imitate a different material (Every Copper to Gold tool does that), you're probably going to want more colors than that.

At that place, much better isn't it? This is nevertheless a very simple sprite, utilizing a total of 8 colors.
Notice how I used a different outline color for the haft, this volition help your sprite looking much more than aesthetically pleasing.

One important thing to go on in mind

- Even though your light is about likely shining from the upper left corner, always make the cutting edges vivid to show that they're sharp. This is especially crucial with single-edged weapons similar swords or sabers.

This Palladium Sword perfectly illustrates what I hateful here:

​

​

To reiterate - Even when your light is shining from the reverse direction, ever add highlights to the sharp office of the weapon.

At this signal, yous're pretty much done.

Just let'south make it even more exciting with the magic of Hue Shifting:

See? Information technology yet has the exact same amount of colors, simply information technology looks more fancy. I wrote a more in-depth caption of hue shifting in the next section.

4) Misc Advice:

With all forms of creative media, it helps to accept a general thought of what your goal is. In other words - If y'all're completely out of ideas at the moment, you're merely not going to make an awesome sprite. If that's the instance, you should probably but requite information technology a remainder and come up back when inspiration hits yous.

Reference pictures and knowing what you're trying to do can help a lot. For case, I take a lot of expertise in ancient armaments, and so it's easy for me to make a conceivable sword or armor that would allow move without tripping over.
That being said, there'due south no need to be an expert - Just use photos for reference or inspiration.
For example, I'm ignorant in regards to firearms, merely I can produce nice looking guns:

Reference:​

​

Of course, you don't have to utilise a reference. If you take a specific idea, just become for it.

Another matter every artist should do is notice others. Either analyze other people's sprites upward close, or ameliorate yet, extract Terraria's textures and run across how they look, how big they are etc.

With regards to armors or outfits, you don't want to start from scratch, lest you lot get the size wrong.
Just get a player template, like one of those:

And just depict over information technology. Just remember that if you program on animating it, You'll take to save each role separately. Interestingly, in-game the legs are on top, the torso is in the middle, and the helmet/hair/head is behind information technology all.

5) Guns (Suggested by SunnyTheHated)

While on the topic of guns, it does appear that they're non equally easy to make.
Of class, every weapon is unlike, and then you'll demand to accept a least a vague idea of what y'all're aiming for - Futuristic, modern, pistol, rifle, organic alien design?

Unlike melee weapons, ranged weapons demand to be horizontally oriented and facing right (Every bit opposed to being diagonal and being swung towards the right side).

Much like with all items, a dainty, varied shape is very important. Don't only settle for a long, flat barrel, try to add to information technology.

That being said, go along in heed that there are supposed to be colors inside that outline.

See? Even if the overall shape is rather simple, you can still add variation within the border.
Notice how I did the handle. It'southward not necessary to make information technology identically to that i, simply in full general a firearm handle is going to exist a flavour of that shape.

With some added shading, it could look something like this:

It's pretty much washed, but you lot can keep calculation to it. Say you desire a sub-motorcar gun and not a shotgun?

Don't get discouraged if your firearms look tiresome at get-go, you lot'll learn to give them all sort of crazy shapes in due time.

half dozen) Nuts of Animation

I won't prevarication to you - Animative sprites is hard. However, if you tin learn it, it's very rewarding.

Terraria's animations use a .png sail with every frame drawn separately, rather than a .gif file.
Let'south have a look at an example:

As you can see, this is the vanilla zombie. It's a relatively simple mob that uses only iii frames for walking.
Since a lot of NPCs don't have a defended assail animation, at that place are some generalizations we can use:

• Animation chains ALWAYS play from the top
• Where applicable, the topmost frame will almost e'er be the default/idle stance (Unicorns, bunnies, zombies etc) - This is the case only with NPCs that have a walking blitheness! (The Chaos Elemental is 1 exception here, not sure if there are others)
• Most, if not all flying NPCs' (Harpies, Bats) idle state is the entire blitheness sail. Ie they don't accept a however continuing frame
• More complex creatures take several animations chains or states that use different animations, which are non always played. Instance - Plantera has two stages, both with separate idle animations that exist within the same file. Similarly, the Unicorn has ii movement speeds, that depend on its velocity
• Important note - The animations depend entirely on the mob, so you lot demand to analyze them on a case-by-case basis. This might exist helpful, every bit information technology ways that if you're making a completely new mob, You're not leap by fixed rules.

That's the nuts. I imagine virtually people will mostly desire to make armors for their chars.
The player characters accept the most complex animations (imho). Within the same armor file, you accept animation frames for standing yet, swinging a weapon, jumping and running.
Luckily, since the actor is split between iii divide files for chest, head and legs, the game will use the same swinging animation regardless of whether you're standing, running or falling downwards a shaft (Do notation - The armor is layered. Equally far as I can tell, the torso volition exist the top layer, with the caput and leg layer existence backside information technology).

While on the topic of separate armor animations - Even though about helmets/hair/heads are not animated (The fishbowl is the only exception I can retrieve of), a helmet file still needs the aforementioned amount of frames every bit the other files.

If you neglect to do this by either leaving the rest of the frames blank or making the head file size different, information technology volition not display properly ingame.

The helmet tin be animated, just it will only be animated in move.

Here are the player blitheness files (Plus a humanoid NPC animation sheet):

One thing I've discovered when I started working with modders, is that armor sprites also demand an 'arm' sprite, presumably for rendering reasons. This means that for every chestplate you lot breathing, you'll have to brand an extra sprite with only the right hand.

Notice that (For some reason) NPCs are always facing left, while the role player armor is always facing right.
In full general, to salve time first brand a static armor sprite, and so split it on the animation sheets.
You may have noticed that the torso and head never moves - Just the hands are blithe, then you can just copy the torso throughout the sheet and then add the hands. It REALLY helps to work with layers here then you lot tin can keep the template underneath to trace it.
Some frames are also identical, and so you can shave off even more fourth dimension past only copying them.

Hither'south an example not-standard NPC animation sprite that I made (With descriptions):
It'due south an burrowing, explosive spider mine.

Frame #one and #ii - Idle standing animation (The robot bobs on information technology's legs in place)
Frame #3 - Burrowed country
Frame #4 - Burrowing. Transition frame between the burrowed land and #1 (Continuing). In other words, when it's digging itself into the ground, the game would play frames #i, #iv and #three.
Frames #5 through #x - Walk cycle.
Frame #xi - Preparing to bound.
Frame #12 - In-flying frame. The robot has its legs extended, and is elevated 1 pixel so that the blitheness looks more natural.

I don't know exactly how Terraria works code wise, but I surmise that information technology could be fifty-fifty simpler - The walk bicycle could be dropped to merely 4 frames, and the last one replaced past frame #1.

Game ready sail:

Here's an animated gif of how it would look like:

Notice how I kept the colour count low to brand creating new frames easier.

7) Shading Spheres

And round objects in general. Basically, all you lot have to do is call up that the sprited object has a 3d shapes, despite existence 2 dimensional.
For orbs of all kind, this means that they'll have a different light falloff than a flat wooden lath.
To illustrate:

All this ways, is that you need to call up that a sphere is protruded towards the viewer, so it reflects light differently than a apartment surface.

9) Dithering

(Note - While this method isn't used that much in Terraria, I feel that information technology's an important technique to know however)
Dithering is a class of shading used on larger areas of color to make the light falloff smoother. Information technology's a very old technique dating back to when color count was low and colors had to be reused, so dithering was used to lower the amount of shades needed to shade a sprite.

It's still used, considering it's peachy for larger areas, or when you don't want to bloat your color count.
So what is Dithering exactly? Dithering is made past making a sort of a checkerboard pattern over the desired transition area between two colors:

The image to the left has 5 colors (Including outline), the one to the right has... Lots.

As you can see, with using the aforementioned amount of colour, we managed to accomplish a smoother shade than the middle image. Of form, it all depends on what you're trying to attain, just in general dithering is great for polish transitions.
Even so, as with all things in life - Don't overdo it. Dithering is non e'er necessary because we no longer accept to worry about a express palette, but you can always employ it a piffling bit in between regular shading.

One important matter to keep in mind well-nigh dithering, is that the dithered pixels should Non bear on, or else the effect is lost. Always make certain that the dithered pixels connect but diagonally.

Whew, that's most the gist of it. In endmost words - The almost important piece of advice I can offer you, is to practice, experiment, and in a higher place all - have fun.

And that'due south it. This guide tin can point you on your fashion, but the real work will be done past you.

Common Beginner Mistakes

a) Grayscale:

​

A lot of newbies, regardless of medium, mix grayscale with colors.

Unless yous know what y'all're doing (Tip: You don't), avoid this at all costs.

If yous desire to imitate steel or a unlike metal, effort a dark, very desaturated shade of low-cal blueish instead.
Similarly, if you want to accept a gray cowl or hood, use a desaturated red or different color.

Encounter? The left one has a ruddy tint, the right one blue and the middle i is 100% grayscale.
Depending on the color y'all picked, the mood of it changes. The reason this is of import, considering one) It looks improve, 2) In real life, nada is ever purely one color, everything is a mixture of light, texture and other factors.
Admittedly, this might not exist the best example, but yous should notice the difference when yous make a overnice gun texture with a grayscale butt. It but won't feel correct.

For a different case, become support and look at the battleaxe process. With the exception of the initial black shape, information technology was never grayscale!

b) Hue-Shifting, or lack thereof

​

At outset, yous don't really demand to worry most hue-shifting, but if you want your sprites to look ameliorate, you should apply it.
But what is Hue-Shifting? Let me to present an example:

This is a space helmet that I did for Minecraft ages ago. Most of you volition likely concord that the left version looks much better. That'due south because I changed the color always so slightly with every shade, whereas the version to the right is using yellow simply.
On the topic of yellow - It'south a

very

difficult color to shade, so hue shifting is a must.

So, in Layman's Terms, Hue Shifting is changing the color betwixt shades to move it towards an opposite color:

Of course, if you're using simply three shades on a tiny item, you probably shouldn't go overboard, but the color wheel is something to keep in mind with larger projects.

In general, when making a sword (For instance), your shadow should come from navy blue, and your highlight be cyan. That's what I did for the battleaxe from the previous section, retrieve?

Similarly, the haft goes from deep purple, through red to orangish.
But again, exist responsible or yous'll end up with a rainbow design when yous wanted a stout broadsword.

c) Pillow Shading

Pillow shading is, in essence, ignoring the calorie-free source.
Personally, I'thousand non as bothered by information technology every bit some, but I believe it'south off-white to bespeak it out.

In it'south most extreme version, pillow shading would look like the orb to the right, whereas the left one has proper shading.:

Information technology would work if it were brighter and was supposed to be glowing, but for most objects you want to avoid disregarding calorie-free sources.
The gist of information technology, is to e'er establish a light source, fifty-fifty if it's always in the upper left corner.

d) Gradients

Call up this moving-picture show?

I noticed that beginners use gradients in their shading. While information technology'south not necessarily a bad thing, I find that using too many colors doesn't expect very expert.
Gradients are great for large backgrounds in scenes (The sky in Terraria uses a uncomplicated gradient), only for game items y'all should probably stick to regular shading, unless the game'southward artstyle outright uses gradients in them as well.
In general people use gradients when they're not sure how to do hue-shifting still.

e) Banding (Suggested by Angelina, help by TheCraziestFox)

This is something I'one thousand guilty of committing myself on occasion.
Banding is when your stack your colors like bricks no matter what. What you desire to do, is to add together small patches of secondary color to smoothen the transition between the base color and the highlight:

This makes the edges drown in backlog color and loose definition. It also divides the picture into gradient ribbons (Or bands) rather than keeping it unified.
I'm not telling yous to never follow the outlines or make lines, it'south just that you need to utilize it wisely.
Do annotation that both examples are pillow-shaded, Ie. in that location's no discernable lite source.

f) Of Aureate and Burn down

Yellow is such a horrible colour. Few people look adept in information technology, and information technology's a pain to shade, even when yous're advanced.
Unfortunately for anybody, two very mutual elements - Burn down and Gold apply yellow.
So how practice we go nearly shading them?
For

fire

and all sorts of magical flames, the key is to utilise very bright, vibrant and saturated colors. Past bright, still, y'all have to remember that only raising the gamma/value of a hue is not enough, you demand to apply a color that is visually brighter:

Y'all want to avoid that washed white or dingy colour in your flaming objects, no thing if the burn is yellow, blue, green or otherwise.
Unless the flame is intentionally nighttime, don't pick dark colors. And fifty-fifty when you're making a blackness flame, the same principles are going to employ, fifty-fifty with such colors.
As a closing note about burn, recollect that it'due south the brightest (Hottest) at the base of operations, and goes darker (Colder) the farther away from the fuel source.

A like principle tin can exist practical to gilt. Practise note that this is personal preference, and a lot of people can disagree, but information technology's what e'er worked for me and I'm the one writing this.

Look back upwardly to the moving-picture show. The objects to the right are golden sceptres. This is tied with Hue-Shading, but it's worth repeating:
The rightmost sceptre uses only shades of yellow, which in my stance makes it look like brass more than than anything, and non like gold at all.
The one to the left uses the exact aforementioned palette as its companion torch. Gilt needs to expect fancy, that's nosotros still use it for anything besides medical tech, hence why I like to give information technology a dainty, vibrant feel to brand it wait special.

It has been pointed out to me once that the way I shade gold makes it appear as if it's lit by a flame rather than xanthous/white sunlight. That's probably true, but honestly? Exterior of specific scenes, I've yet to see external light color taken into account when the game already has its own light engine.

thou) Jaggies

Similarly to banding, when making lines of any kind, you want to avert sharp, sudden breaks in them.

When a line is supposed to be shine or straight, make sure you describe it that way.

Afterword

This guide volition aggrandize as I become input and call back of new things that need mentioning, so stay tuned.

Links

Gimp 2.6.7 (I advocate against the utilize of the newer versions, because they are grossly user unfriendly)
Paint.net
A detailed comparison of Gimp and Paint.net features
Terraria Custom Content Loader (For seeing your sprites in-game)
XNB Exporter and Data IDs
Infraynor'south short spriting guide (Video)
Pixel Lantern's guide to Terraria spriting
AaronC'south MS Paint basic spriting guide
An explanation on why to avert pure black
Color Theory Basics
Listing of Pixel Fine art software
What to avoid in Pixel Art (Very detailed)
More than advanced tutorials for intermediates (General Pixel Art)

medinafarretionly.blogspot.com

Source: https://forums.terraria.org/index.php?threads%2Fbeginner-spriting-guide.372%2F

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